The mid-week service

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Copyright^0

COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT.

BY HALFORD E. LUCCOCK

FARES, PLEASE ! AND OTHER ESSAYS

12mo. Net, 75 cents

The Mid -Week
Service

By
HALFORD E. LUCCOCK

and

WARREN F. COOK

THE METHODIST BOOK CONCERN
NEW YORK CINCINNATI

Copyright, 1916, by
HALFORD E. LUCCOCK

4».

JUL 27 1916

©CI.A433870
7^/ #

CONTENTS

Chapter Page

Preface 7

I. Eyes Front! 9

II. Some Prayer Meeting Convictions . 12

III. Some Prayer Meeting Standards.. . 28

IV. Some Prayer Meeting Experiences . 43

V. The Meetings 53

VI. Additional Suggestions 104

PREFACE
This little book is not an Inquest.

CHAPTER I

EYES FRONT!

Many an inquest has been held
over the prayer meeting. And sweet
are the uses of an adversity like an
inquest. It teaches much, and it
usually interests. The far-famed in-
quest over the early death of the
lamented Cock Robin never lacked a
perpetual charm for our childhood, and
seems to have served as a model for
many a discussion of the prayer meet-
ing. "Who kiUed Cock Robin?" is
the question. "The minister with his
long talks," says one witness. "The
congregation with its cold indiffer-
ence," says another. "The age with
its worldliness," says a third. If a
true bill is to be returned, it looks
as though we should have to indict

9

10 THE MID-WEEK SERVICE

a whole people, which Burke tells us
we cannot rightly do. So many a
treatment of the theme has been
simply a variation of the lament,
" Where are the snows of yesteryear?"

To say that the prayer meeting is
dead would be a gratuitous piece of
generalization to which we do not
commit ourselves. It is far better to
maintain the "judicial" attitude of the
French minister at the English court,
who reported to his government: "Some
say that the Pretender is dead; some
say that he is not. For myself I be-
lieve neither story."

The church is not nearly so much
interested in Inquest as she is in
Conquest. How to make all her forces
into full strength regiments in the
march and battle of the Kingdom is
her first concern. Her command to
each is "Eyes front!"

Mid toil and tribulation
And tumult of her war,

EYES FRONT! 11

She is asking of her midweek serv-
ice as of every regiment to face a
changed battle front.

While no discussion of the prayer
meeting which did not keep in mind
the changed spiritual and mental con-
ditions of the day could possibly be
of value, to consider such changes as
they affect the prayer meeting is not
within the purpose of the present
writing. Such necessary work has been
excellently done. The present ques-
tion is not, How did the prayer meet-
ing come into its present situation?
but, Where is it going? What may it
be led to accomplish? This book
hopes to partially answer the ques-
tion with some suggestions of applied
methods.

CHAPTER II

SOME PRAYER MEETING
CONVICTIONS

1. A prayer meeting is one of the

logical inferences of Christian theology.

It is not mere utility as a form of

worship which has given it its place

through the centuries. The doctrine

of the Fatherhood of God has been

equally responsible. As soon as a

building becomes a home it needs

something more than a reception room,

an art gallery, and a conservatory.

It needs a living room and it needs

a nursery. The Christian Church,

called into being by the revelation of

the Father God, was born in a home,

and radiated out from a center filled

with tender domestic associations. The

church should always bear the hall-
12

CONVICTIONS 13

marks of its birthplace, retaining the
gracious hospitality, unruffled peace,
and warm-hearted love of a genuine
home. It is not enough to supply
these through the smaller gathering
in the prayer meeting. They must
be the unmistakable marks of the
church itself, penetrating all like the
very atmosphere of an orchard in
bloom. Where this is lacking, as the
common atmosphere which fills the
whole of the Father's House with
fragrance, it is almost impossible to
cultivate the grace of real Christian
fellowship in any particular depart-
ment. But where it is present there
is still need for some gathering in
which the great doctrine of the com-
munion of saints, which so easily dis-
solves into airy nothing, gets a local
habitation and a name. What form
it may take depends upon as many
and varied conditions as does the
form in which the fellowship of a

14 THE MID-WEEK SERVICE

family finds expression and growth.
That depends on the family, its mem-
bers, temperament, its needs, occupa-
tion. But if a home is really a home,
standing for more than board and
lodging and comfort, there must be
some means of the culture of fellow-v^
ship, sympathy, and mutual self -giving.
So if the church is a home, made so
by every truth of the New Testament,
it must protide some natural and
familiar means of family council, so ^
that the homely New Testament duty
and grace of "doing good and com-
municating" and "greeting the friends
by name" may not perish from the
earth. A mid-week gathering will pro-
vide a strategic opportunity of /
strengthening the grip on the lives ^
of men of what Dean Bosworth has
called the four great bonds which tie
them together — a common work, a
common deliverance, a common ex-
perience, and a common hope.

CONVICTIONS 15

2. Having said this, let us hasten
to add that the midweek service has
suffered grievously from mistaken loy-
alties. "Loyalty is the soul of re-
ligion/ ' says Josiah Royce, and in
a very suggestive and thoughtful book,
The Philosophy of Loyalty, has claimed
it as the soul of nearly everything else.
His exaltation of a noble tenacity
of spirit and will is a word always
in season, yet loyalty of itself is never
an unmixed good. Without the in-
forming spirit of a mobile and open-
minded intelligence it becomes the
world's unrivaled obstacle to progress.
Rufus Choate once said that John
Quincy Adams was a "bull dog with
confused ideas.' ' Now, a bull dog
with an unyielding grip has its uses
in the world, but a bull dog with con-
fused ideas is a dangerous thing to
let run loose. Oxford has been pa-
thetically called the "home of lost
causes and mistaken loyalties." The

16 THE MID-WEEK SERVICE

church has surely been a home of
mistaken loyalties.

There has been the mistaken loy-
alty to a vocabulary. Through a deep
and even holy desire to preserve the
truths which have found, necessarily,
only partial expression in certain
words, many have fastened their loy-
alty to the words themselves — forever
mistaking, like the Prince in Tenny-
son's "Princess," "the shadow for the
substance."

There has been the mistaken loyalty
to a method. Not fully comprehend-
ing the infinite variety of an unchang-
ing God who yet fulfills himself in
many ways, his servants have fre-
quently endeavored to transform that
glorious city with three ever-open gates
on a side into a castle surrounded by
a moat, with only one entrance over
a narrow drawbridge.

The mistaken loyalty to a form has
greatly subtracted from the possibil-

CONVICTIONS 17

ities of the midweek service. "I can
take care of my enemies, but save
me from my friends/ J was the prayer
of one discouraged, but discerning man.
So, from the friends of the prayer
meeting to whom fond memory con-
tinually brings the light of other days,
loyal to the traditional form of meeting,
its exposition and more or less hack-
neyed and irrelevant testimonies, the
prayer meeting has suffered as much,
at least, as from its enemies. More
often than we care to think of we
have allowed the truths of Him, whose
mercies like his sunrises are new every
morning, to become mildewed and
musty, under the blight of an un-
varying form for their consideration.
There has grown up a mode of pro-
cedure in the service which is more
like a solemn ritual than anything
else. When the leader finishes and
announces that the meeting is open,
the real truth of the matter is often

18 THE MID-WEEK SERVICE

that it is closed as tight as a drum,
and he might as well say "Earth to
earth, ashes to ashes, dust to dust,"
for the meeting is already laid away,
as far as lifelike response is concerned.
Dr. Richard C. Cabot says, "No one
ought to be satisfied to test his work
by any easier standards than these:
First, am I seeing all the actual facts,
the ever new and unique facts as
they come before me? second, am I
tracing out as far as I can the full
bearing, the true lesson of this move-
ment or situation?" Might not a
parallel test, equally hard and thor-
oughgoing, be well for those interested
in conserving prayer meeting values?
"Believing in the unique usefulness of
the fellowship meeting, are we giving
to it enough thought and consecrated
ingenuity to provide it with varied
and fresh forms? Are we making it
so flexible as to appeal not merely
to 'prayer meeting folks/ but to

CONVICTIONS 19

widely different temperaments? Are
we making it natural and easy for
people to readily participate without
constraint and without the least trace
of cant? Are we making it touch
life closely and definitely enough to
be a real inspiration to service?"

3. Most churches do not need a
continual meeting of the type so pre-
dominant in the New Testament — the
"charismatic" meeting, a gathering for
the exercises of spiritual gifts. The
earliest Christian worship was a meet-
ing for edification not only for be-
lievers but also for unbelievers. Every
Christian had "received the Holy
Ghost" and a "gift" as the "man-
ifestation of the Spirit within him"
(1 Cor. 12. 7ff.). From the lists in
Rom. 12. 6 and 1 Cor. 12. 8 we learn
that these gifts were of a manifold
nature; but there was a distinction
drawn (1 Pet. 4. 10) between the gifts
of speaking and the gifts of ministry,

20 THE MID-WEEK SERVICE

and those who had received the gifts
of speaking took part in public wor-
ship. Saint Paul describes the service
in 1 Cor. 14. 26, mentioning as different
parts a "psalm, a teaching, a tongue,
a revelation, an interpretation." These
parts are not rigid divisions and are
not exhaustive, for prayer was an in-
tegral part of the service (1 Cor. 11. 4).
This type of meeting for the employ-
ment of diverse gifts of speaking has
naturally served as a model for the
modern prayer meeting of the Prot-
estant Church and there will always
be a place for the exercise of such
genuine and unmistakable gifts of the
Holy Spirit. But it is open to serious
question whether such a meeting can
be used as a model in a church year
after year to the largest edification of
all concerned. Gifts which might be
classed as gifts of prophecy, teaching,
and revelation — from whatever variety
of causes — are not common. And

CONVICTIONS 21

where they do not abound, as is so
often the case, to let the meeting de-
pend so largely upon their manifestation
is to limit very needlessly the range and
possibilities of the service. There are
clear evidences that in the early church
the type of meeting easily tended to
become one not altogether making for
edification. He would be lacking in
experience who would fail to know
the genuine power in the unction of
sincere testimony, revelation, and ex-
hortation of the laity. But he would
also be lacking in experience who would
assert the continual need of the average
church for a meeting whose main reli-
ance is upon these "spiritual gifts."

4. The prayer meeting is not prop-
erly a matter for the conscience. It
is not functioning rightly when it
rests its claim on duty. "Put the
prayer meeting on your conscience,
brethren," echoes from many pulpits.
The frequent result of putting the

22 THE MID-WEEK SERVICE

prayer meeting on the conscience is
that it irritates the conscience more
or less, but does not bring the
owner to the meeting. The anonymous
vivacious author of the Confessions of
a Clergyman has convincingly de-
scribed a case of the prayer meeting
being "put on the conscience": "A
midweek service. Bells slowly tolling.
Here and there women starting out,
singly or by twos and threes, their
faces expressive of a sweet, patient,
sacrificial dutifulness. For every seven
women a man — generally a meekish-
looking man, or if not that, one pos-
sessed of a Lincoln-like firmness.

"In forty homes, meanwhile, a trou-
bled air, as if the bells recalled priv-
ileges neglected. Then a distant sound
of treble voices singing, with possibly
a baritone above them. At this, a
quite perceptible change in the stay-
at-homes. Now that it is too late
to go, they feel less guilty."

CONVICTIONS 23

5. The midweek service should be a
devotional meeting; but the word "de-
votion" used in this connection is a
word of enlarging meaning. There is
much of truth in the suggestive re-
mark of Coleridge, "Make any truth
too definite and you make it too small."
The word "devotional" has often been
made much too small by being made
to cover too limited a variety of
exercises. The words of Isaiah are
aptly descriptive of the case — "The
bed is shorter than a man can stretch
himself in." Whether a meeting is
devotional or not depends not so much
upon what kind of things are done
as upon the effect that is produced.
The simple giving of information may
have a high devotional value in that
it may result in changed purposes or
quickened ideas; while a meeting com-
posed of prayer and exhortation may
be decidedly unspiritual if it results in
weariness and lack of interest. "The

24 THE MID-WEEK SERVICE

sin against the Holy Ghost in the
pulpit," says Sydney Smith, "is dull-
ness." If that is true, the prayer-
meeting room also has often been a
very sinful place. "There is only one
impermissible pulpit style," he says,
"the uninteresting." Dullness is one
of the arch enemies of spirituality to
be feared and warred against equally
with other forms of vice, commonly
rated more deadly. Whatever kind of
midweek service results in new views
of truth from unconventional angles,
new stirrings of interest, or new im-
pulses to service, is a strictly devo-
tional meeting. And whatever does
not so result, no matter how tradi-
tionally "devotional" its form and
words, is not so.

6. In what may be called a "family
council" type of meeting, the church
has great spiritual resources. Nearly
all of the midweek services described
in later pages are of this general type.

CONVICTIONS 25

It might be called a "round-table"
type of meeting, did not even that
suggest too much formality. The ideal,
by no means always achieved, but
never lost sight of, and frequently
approximated in actual experience, has
been to create the unconstrained at-
mosphere or tone of the home sitting
room, when the various members of
the family return home from the day's
work, and the events of the day are
naturally spoken of by all. An effec-
tive means of dispelling the constraint
and reserve which hangs over so many
prayer meetings like a miasma has
been to furnish something to be done.
The things done are often extremely
simple, as in the case later described,
where the people were asked to bring
from their houses old Bibles and use
them in the meetings. The result was
an awe-inspiring collection of books
around which were gathered the most
tender and precious associations of life

26 THE MID-WEEK SERVICE

to many present. But a far more im-
portant result was that several people,
who could never be induced to make
a speech in meeting, or "give a testi-
mony/ ' as the common phrase runs,
showed their Bibles to the company
and told to whom they belonged, to
a mother or father, and very gradually
they were speaking of the deep things
of their heart's life, with as much
freedom and naturalness as a man
showing some photographs to some
friend in his parlor. Such a partici-
pation is incomparably more beneficial
to the one who speaks and all the others
than a testimony given from a sense
of duty or restlessness at seeing the
meeting lag. These things to be done
are never to be introduced merely for
the sake of novelty, for there is no
spiritual value in novelty of itself; and
if it is in the least bizarre or extrav-
agant, it quickly destroys a spiritual
atmosphere. Everything to be intro-

CONVICTIONS 27

duced into the prayer meeting must
pass through this narrow gate — "Will
it make some spiritual truth clearer,
win it a readier attention, or build
up some desired mood or temper of
prayer and service in the attendant?"
But where this test is conscientiously
applied, and where the congregation
come to know that the next meeting
will be different from the last, that in
it they will do something which will
lead them on into freedom from self-
consciousness, in that place the prayer
meeting has been securely established
in the affections, the only place it can
permanently make its home.

CHAPTER III

SOME PRAYER MEETING
STANDARDS

Cardinal Mazarin had only one
test or standard in his judgment of
men — a simple one of three words —
"Is he lucky?" Under the thin veneer
of churchmanship, the deeply rooted
paganism of his heart clung to the
fetish of the superstition of luck. The
standard of a considerable part of the
modern world can be expressed in a
question of three words, equally simple
and equally valueless — "Is it Big?"
It is the child's first footrule: the loss
of a penny is by a natural logic a
greater calamity than the loss of a
dime. The penny is bigger. Many
men, "children of a larger growth,"
rarely ever ask any more penetrating

28

STANDARDS 29

question of things. In The Turmoil,
Booth Tarkington has pictured with
great power the pitiable blindness of a
city bowed at the altar of Bigness,
with utter disregard of the effect of
size on the lives of the people who
make up the city.

So one is not at all surprised to find
that a very frequent test of prayer-
meeting success is the same crude
footrule size. "The biggest prayer
meeting in the city" is a standing line
in the advertisement of a church in
an Eastern city. "So many testi-
monies in so many minutes" is part
of many a report, given with a ring,
which unmistakably marks it as the
very apex of success. And large num-
bers of people would regard looking
at such manifestly good accomplish-
ments with a critical eye as ultra
fastidious. Yet one who approaches
the subject from the angle of thought-
ful experience will readily agree that

30 THE MID-WEEK SERVICE

mere numbers, as regards the prayer
meeting, are very much like the flow-
ers immortalized by W. S. Gilbert,
which bloomed "in the spring," but
which, after all, had "nothing to do
with the case."

The shrewd politician pays no super-
stitious homage to numbers — except as
they appear in the ballot box. Tell
him that the opposition candidate ad-
dressed an enthusiastic meeting of five
thousand people, with much flag-wav-
ing and music, and the usual response
will be a bland and confident smile.
But tell him of a meeting in conference
of leaders of different organizations in
the city, be there only ten or a dozen
present, he will at once be interested.
The competent historian no longer
judges by size. In 1874 Robert Lowe
made a speech in the House of Com-
mons in which he amused himself with
belittling the Greeks and Romans.
"The battle of Marathon," he said,

STANDARDS 31

"was of less account than a modern
explosion in a coal mine, which often
kills a greater number than the nine-
teen hundred and twenty-nine persons
who perished withstanding the hosts
of Darius." On this John Fiske com-
ments very pertinently: "The moral
intended was that the newspaper is a
better textbook than Herodotus. Now
I can imagine that too exclusive at-
tention to a newspaper, with the
myriad disconnected items of fact and
fancy, might so destroy one's sense of
perspective as to blind one to the
importance of an event upon which
hung the whole future of European civ-
ilization. The battle of Borodino with
seventy thousand killed is trivial com-
pared with Marathon. We cannot
measure events with a footrule."1

The thoughtful Christian well knows
it. Who would compare for a moment
the importance of the feeding of the

1 Dutch and Quaker Colonies in America, Vol. i, p. 218.

32 THE MID-WEEK SERVICE

five thousand with that little meeting
in an upper room in Jerusalem where
only twelve persons were present with
the Master, or even with the meeting
with the woman at a well in Samaria,
or with Nicodemus with two present?
Let it not be inferred, on the other
hand, that smallness of numbers has
any magical advantage in a meeting.
A large midweek service is a consum-
mation devoutly to be wished and
earnestly worked for. More than that,
a somnolent satisfaction with small
numbers is nothing short of the be-
trayal of a sacred trust. Nevertheless,
the question that really signifies is
never, How many were present? but
everywhere and always, What did
those who were present do as a result
of being there? For it is perfectly
clear that a large attendance may be
due to one of several causes, bearing
very little relation to its real value.
It may be due largely to habit. In

STANDARDS 33

some cases it is due to the fact that
the midweek service is the chief or
only through-the-week activity of the
church. Thus a large attendance might
not be a sign of unusual efficiency but
of its very opposite, meaning that the
church was attempting none of the
other things it might do and ought
to do. In other cases, of course, it
is due to its meeting a genuine need
and functioning with the utmost effi-
ciency in the life of the church. But
in every case the size is not the cause
of value and can be taken as an indi-
cation of it only very roughly. The
popular epigram that the "prayer meet-
ing is the thermometer of the church"
is the kind of misleading half truth
that popular epigrams usually are.

1. The most obvious test of a prayer
meeting is a fair one — "Does it pray?"
This means more than to ask, "Are
there prayers said?" In a little church
in the Middle West the following

34 THE MID-WEEK SERVICE

petition was offered every week for
ten years, with very few exceptions:
"Bless each and every member of the
church in the lot whereunto Thou hast
called him or her, and all the peoples
of the earth from the heads of the
rivers to the feet thereof." These
words always occurred in a prayer,
but it would be an unpardonable
stretching of language to say that
the meeting prayed. Leading a body
of people in prayer, using that phrase
in its largest sense of leading them
through months and years into a real
practice of prayer, is the most im-
portant as well as one of the most
considerable undertakings to which a
pastor can address himself. Nothing
calls for more resourcefulness and pa-
tience and nothing touches the church's
power so nearly at the center. It is
an enterprise much like the uncovering
of a spring. The hard crust of stereo-
typed phrases and traditional ideas and

STANDARDS 35

misconceptions must be first removed,
carefully and tactfully, as a rule, but
sometimes the crust which forbids the
flowing of the stream is so hard and
set that it requires a process much
like blasting. It is the most rewarding
work a man can ever do. Once unlock
the spring of a genuine petition and
intercession and everything shall live
whither the river cometh.

The French have an extremely sug-
gestive phrase, which they use of a
public meeting, when they say, "It
marched"; the phrase catches splen-
didly the swing and movement of an
exhilarating public gathering. Is there
not room for a phrase descriptive of
a prayer meeting, conveying something
just as definite and real — "It prayed"?
When such a description is a true one,
the meeting reaches back across the
centuries and clasps hands with the
company of folks in Jerusalem of whom
we read, "And when they had prayed,

36 THE MID-WEEK SERVICE

the place was shaken where they were
assembled together; and they were all
filled with the Holy Ghost, and spake
the word of God with boldness." The
sequence is always true of a gathering.
When it prays — it marches!

2. Does it "domesticate" religious
truth? When the psychologist writes
of consciousness he tells us of ideas
and perceptions being divided accord-
ing to their "warmth" into two great
classes, the "me" and the "not-me."
The things which have some personal
association with one — his property,
friends, reputation, thoughts — all ac-
quire a warmth or feeling of pro-
prietorship which constitute them a
part of his larger self. It is the func-
tion of Christian teaching and preach-
ing to transfer the substance of
Christian faith from the "not-me" to
the "me" part of men's minds. In
a peculiar sense this is the business
of the prayer meeting. By its topics

STANDARDS 37

and their treatment, by the participa-
tion it elicits in as many and varied
ways as possible, it should move the
truths of Christian faith within the
inner circle of what actually "belongs"
to a person and enters in as con-
stant ingredient in his daily life. Lord
Bacon says of familiar essays that
they are "most current for that they
come to men's business and bosoms."
The prayer meeting succeeds when it
comes to men's business and bosoms.
It fails when it stops short of that
and reaches only their ears and eyes.
A form of meeting which fails to estab-
lish this closeness of intimate feeling
and relationship may be unimpeach-
ably good in itself and still fail of
its largest service. At the celebrated
tea party given by the March Hare,
the Hatter and the Dormouse, in Alice
in Wonderland, the Hatter gazes re-
gretfully at his broken watch and
reproaches the March Hare angrily,

38 THE MID-WEEK SERVICE

"I told you butter wouldn't suit the
works." "It was the best butter," the
March Hare meekly replied. The fact
that it was the very best butter could
not help him, if it was not butter at
all which the works needed but some-
thing entirely different. Many a
prayer meeting leader has striven to
make his addresses better and better,
and has made them of the finest
quality, when what was needed was
not the best kind of addresses, but
something entirely different.

3. Does it break up the molds of
thinking? This is a hard but fair
test of a vital prayer meeting. The
midweek council or conference gather-
ing furnishes a rare opportunity for
the breaking up of mental soil and
the consequent possibility of new
growth. Bishop McConnell says that
many Christians are still-born — they
never add anything to the range of
ideas or practices which were theirs

STANDARDS 39

at the time of their entrance into the
Christian life. Instead of moving
ahead on the straight road that grow-
eth more and more light even unto
the perfect day, they revolve in cir-
cles. It is this unprogressive circular
character of the prayer meeting which
has frequently made it a kind of
spiritual merry-go-round. To furnish,
even by the simplest means, some new
approach to truth — some new angle of
vision on duty — is as essential to
life as plowing to a corn field. The
landscape artist is continually con-
cerned to get new glimpses of his
subject to help him in his composi-
tion. He will frequently look at it
from under his elbow, and even
upside down. Such new "composi-
tions," "puttings together" of life are
indispensable to a living church.

4. "Is it linked up to service?" This
is the fourth and greatest standard.
The finest automobile constructed,

40 THE MID-WEEK SERVICE

without a "clutch" which can be
thrown into the machinery and relate
the racing motor to the miles of road
to be covered, is a poor affair. Has
the prayer meeting a "clutch" which
can be "thrown in" and turn the
machinery of the church? For the
"manifestation of the Spirit is given
to every man to profit withal." In
service, the successful prayer meeting
begins and ends. What gave the
fellowship gathering of the early church
an undimmed glow and zest was the
fact that it was a workers' conference
and fighters' assembly. As we read
over the personal greetings in the
last chapter of the Epistle to the
Romans we get an idea of the com-
pany who made up the meeting in
which the letter would be read, and
we find ourselves among a group of
people who came to the meeting from
labor and the battlefield — Priscilla and
Aquila, fellow workers in Christ, who

STANDARDS 41

had risked their necks, and whose
very house was a church; "Mary, who
bestowed much labor"; Andronicus and
Junius, fellow prisoners; "Urbane, our
helper in Christ"; "Apelles the tested";
"Tryphena and Tryphosa, who labor
in the Lord," and "Persis, who
labored much." Is it any wonder
that in such a gathering of active
workmen there was an atmosphere of
reality and alertness, which made it
move in spiritual power? With a
meeting, which, on the other hand,
is on the order of Melchizedek, which
has neither spiritual ancestors in the
form of Christian service already per-
formed, nor descendants in the form
of service inspired and subsequently
rendered, but which stands as a thing
alone and self-sufficient, it is no won-
der the meeting lags! The surest
hoops of steel with which to grapple
friends to the common gathering are
the bonds of a common work. Then

42 THE MID-WEEK SERVICE

it is, in a true and literal sense, that
man is a "creature of large discourse,
looking before and after " and finding
in each direction the natural tongue-
freeing interest of a worker in his
work. The meeting which really in-
spires definite service, in whatever
way, whether by filling the springs
of Christian joy and devotion out of
which all power for service ultimately
comes, or uncovering some new corner
of opportunity, is one that the King
delighteth to honor.

CHAPTER IV

SOME PRAYER MEETING
EXPERIENCES

The meetings described in the fol-
lowing chapter are outlined with a
very modest purpose. They have not
solved the "prayer meeting problem/ 9
as it is frequently referred to in pain-
ful accents. They are no sort of a
panacea. They do not displace other
types of meeting which have borne
genuine and manifold fruit for years
and which will, in the good providence
of God, continue to do so. There
are seasons and places where the
largest good can be accomplished by
the meeting being given an educa-
tional aspect and consisting largely
of an address by the minister. So
with other kinds of meetings which

43

44 THE MID-WEEK SERVICE

deserve to hold a permanent place in
the life of the church. It is simply
as variations, with a quite general
adaptability, that the meetings in this
book are put forth.

They have at least the virtue of
being real records of actual experience.
They have all been used under con-
ditions such as obtain in the average
church and do not depend for success
upon any extraordinary responsiveness
among the people or extraordinary
capability in the leader, for they did
not have these conditions when used.
As will be readily seen, most of the
meetings have the common element of
furnishing the attendants something to
do as well as opportunity for "re-
marks," and the experience has been
that the "things to be done" have
served to make the things said come
with more readiness, naturalness, and
pertinence. Something of the element
of a "surprise party" has been given

EXPERIENCES 45

to the service, immensely strengthen-
ing the interest in the service on the
part of the congregation, by imparting
a real variety. Frequently variety in
the prayer meeting has been sought
for by means so external and super-
ficial that the real character of the
gathering remains unchanged. It has
been like the boarder who complained
to his landlady that the meals were
too much the same, since she had
macaroni for dinner every day. She
promised to remedy the fault, and,
true to her word, the next day there
was a change. Instead of macaroni
she had spaghetti! While the writers
wish most earnestly to avoid creat-
ing the impression that the meetings
achieved more than was actually the
case, it can truly be said that they
did much to exorcise the evil spirits
of dumbness, constraint, and reserve.

1. The greatest result was in the
development of people. With some peo-

46 THE MID-WEEK SERVICE

pie the degree of response was not
what was hoped for and expected. But
with a surprising number the informal
character of the discussions of themes,
which bore directly on the lives at
many points, elicited a participation
not present before, greater in quan-
tity, and marked with a genuineness
and frankness which was both novel
and gratifying. Folks grew in the
grace of expression and the process
of that growth added to the riches
of the whole company. It is a perti-
nent word which Dr. J. H. Jowett
writes: "The church is poor because
much of her treasure is imprisoned;
but she herself carries the liberating
key. Our riches are buried in the
isolated lives of individual members
instead of being pooled for the endow-
ment of the whole fraternity. A very
large part of the ample ministry of
the 'Koinonia' has become atrophied,
if, indeed, it was ever well sustained.

EXPERIENCES 47

'O, for a closer walk with God/ we
sigh. O, for a closer walk with man,
we may add, as well."

The wealth of suggestiveness and
experience which are to be contributed
by many, if once the safety deposit
vault of their reserve and silence can
be opened, is truly surprising. Fre-
quently, it cannot be opened because
the distance from not speaking at all
to speaking on the greatest and deep-
est themes is too large a one to be
taken at one step. Many of the
themes and programs of the meetings
described have served to put grad-
uated steps between these extremes.
By connection with things which
brought no sense of spiritual self-con-
sciousness the habit of freedom of
speech is established, and once estab-
lished it can be used to many ends.
One man put his impressions in a very
definite way at one time during a
meeting. "Why, it seemed as though

48 THE MID-WEEK SERVICE

the pastor must have pronounced the
benediction at the beginning of the
meeting. Everyone was talking just as
they usually do when it is over."

2. The meetings have given freedom
from stereotyped speeches and prayers.
When the subject is so distinctly and
definitely one thing, the many irrele-
vancies and stock speeches are by a
natural and automatic process crowded
out. And when a habit of more gen-
eral participation has been established
the time limit becomes a necessity and
a blessing at once.

3. Initiative has been developed.
Several extremely valuable suggestions
for meetings have come from the
people themselves as the service has
fastened itself in their interest. This
has had the double value of providing
helpful meetings and of inspiring the
people with a new feeling of ownership
and responsibility.

4. An entirely unexpected experience,

EXPERIENCES 49

but one rich in value, has been in the
themes for sermons supplied. The in-
terest and problems of the people have
been disclosed with unaccustomed in-
timacy and fullness. If the ideal
sermon should have "heaven for its
father and earth for its mother," the
prayer meeting has often supplied
elements of both, particularly of the
earth, in its disclosure of the condi-
tions of people's minds and lives.
Often a practical question discussed in
prayer meeting has stirred the soil
and awakened interest, affording a
preparation for the preacher's pulpit
message, on the same subject, as
beneficial as a spring plowing be-
fore sowing the seed. The debate on
"Resolved, That the world is growing
morally and spiritually better," had
such a decided effect. Those who had
been in the meeting were already
awakened with thought. The consid-
eration of the question, "What are the

50 THE MID-WEEK SERVICE

real possibilities of our church?" was
extremely helpful to the pastor, pre-
paring to treat the same subject, and
furnished an audience composed of
many who had already thought seri-
ously on the theme and were keenly
alert to consider it.

Two supplementary remarks may
perhaps be well added. A strong
Prayer Meeting Committee, to help
plan and provide for the meetings,
has been found not only a help but
practically a necessity. It not only
assists the pastor but makes for the
democracy of cooperation, and is an
outward and visible sign that the
prayer meeting is not a harmless ex-
crescence on the body of the church or
a foible of the pastor, but part of the
program of the church. It is a sad
thing and a "bad-weather" signal when
the Finance Committee of the church
is the most important one, or perhaps
the only one. The church whose gov-

EXPERIENCES 51

erning board rarely ever acts on any-
thing except the treasurer's report is
usually acting on a deficit. Member-
ship on the Prayer Meeting Committee
can be made a post of real respon-
sibility, work, and honor. And on
its membership there may with great
helpfulness be some who have pre-
viously had nothing whatever to do
with the prayer meeting. Different
members of the church, if possible a
man and his wife, have frequently
been asked to act as host and hostess
at the meeting. This was done but
occasionally, so that it never became
merely a form, and it added to the
informal and domestic character of the
meeting. The duties were not defined,
and different hosts and hostesses acted
in different ways, except that all re-
ceived the attendants with greeting and
made themselves particularly respon-
sible for introductions and sociability.
Sometimes the meeting itself provided

52 THE MID-WEEK SERVICE

some special connection with the hosts,
as when the people went from one room
to another, when they acted as guides,
or when pictures or books were to be
passed in the meeting — which they
took charge of.

Frequently the host and hostess
furnished flowers, though some were
asked explicitly not to do so, so as
not to make it an unvarying custom,
perhaps burdensome. Some provided
special music. Some furnished light
refreshments, especially in summer.
One couple furnished copies of the
Gospel of John, appropriately inscribed
with a personal greeting, at a meeting
calling for the use of the Gospel.
The total cost of the Gospels was a
little over a dollar. Some furnished
cards containing the greetings of the
season — at Easter and Christmas and
New Year's, etc.

CHAPTER V

THE MEETINGS

In considering the following plans
it should be kept in mind that prayer
and the expression of testimony are
not omitted from any of these services.
The suggestions and symbolisms used
are but a guide and stimulation to
them. Rather than prayer and testi-
mony being crowded out, it is found
that they become more natural, more
vital, and certainly more to the point.
It should also be noted that it is not
the intention to suggest the use of
these services one right after the other.
This is not a year's program for the
midweek service; these meetings are
not offered as a substitute for the
usual prayer meeting. They are sug-
gested, rather, as types of meetings

53

54 THE MID-WEEK SERVICE

to be interspersed with the usual meet-
ings to add variety, interest, and
naturalness to expressional religion.

"Twelve o'Clock and All's Well"

This was the midnight call of the
old town crier, and furnished the
motto and spirit of the first meeting
of the year as the old year turned
into the new. A large picture of the
"Town Crier" holding his lantern and
calling out the hour was lent by one
of the members and hung on the
front wall of the room, decorated with
holly. The little Christmas tree in
the room was kept over from the
Christmas meeting and on its branches
hung several packages of different
sizes. The presidents or represent-
atives of different organizations in the
church were asked to be present and
receive gifts for their respective organ-
izations. After these were duly opened
they were found to contain greetings

THE MEETINGS 55

from the church to the different or-
ganizations, composed of appropriate
Scripture, a wish for some definite
thing for the organization to accom-
plish that year, and a prayer for help
to do so. The greeting to the Sunday
school, for instance, was in the form
of a miniature manuscript roll after
the old Jewish pattern on which was
written 2 Tim. 2. 3, and 3. 14, 15, and
the wish and prayer that it might
strengthen its hold on the boys and
girls of the intermediate grade. So
with five other organizations. The
president of the Ladies' Aid Society
received a spool of thread and needles
and the wish that through all the social
work of the organization the spiritual
purpose might be preeminent. From
this beginning a natural and free con-
versation on the tasks of the church
ensued. The aim of the meeting was
to foster the spirit of unity and con-
fidence.

56 THE MID-WEEK SERVICE

An Evening with Old Bibles

Nearly every Christian family has
among its possessions an old Bible
around which hover very tender asso-
ciations. In some cases it has come
down through several generations; in
others it is the father's or mother's
Bible. Frequently such a volume
shows the marks of long usage by
some loved one. The congregation
was asked for this service to bring
such Bibles. The number of such
Bibles in any congregation will be
surprising. Those who brought them
told to whom they had belonged,
how they had been read, and then
read from them — in most cases some
marked passage. The progress of the
meeting brought out the real connec-
tion between Bible-reading and charac-
ter, and at the close the leader spoke
briefly on the value of having one's
own Bible for devotional reading; how

THE MEETINGS 57

everyone has to make his own Bible
by his own use, and the value of
marking a Bible and so linking it up
to particular times and experiences
in life.

The Communion of Saints

A good-size map of the United
States is placed in the front of the
room, where all can see it; then each
one is given a small United States
flag. After the service is introduced
each one is asked, separately, to go
to the map, and stick the flag in the
place, where they were converted, or
first joined the church; they then may
tell about that church, or their early
experience there.

Another good meeting may grow out
of this one by having greetings sent
from this meeting to these old home
churches, and when the replies are
received, have the answers read in a
subsequent meeting.

58 THE MID-WEEK SERVICE

A Cooperative Gospel-Reading
Meeting

Under the conviction that the aver-
age church member knows far too
little of the contents of the Gospels
as a whole, a meeting was planned
which consisted wholly of reports on
Bible-reading. The people were as-
signed different chapters in the Gos-
pels to read and report on the contents
of the chapters. The first evening
was given to the Gospel of Matthew
and Mark, eleven people being asked
to read four chapters each and briefly
tell what was in them, thus covering
the forty-four chapters of the first
two Gospels. Outlines of the two
books had been put on the blackboard
so that the movement of the Gospels
could be readily followed. A succeed-
ing evening was devoted to Luke and
John. The meetings were entirely the
people's meetings and were instrumen-

THE MEETINGS 59

tal in securing a large amount of
careful Bible-reading on the part of
the congregation. The epistles of Paul
were later treated in the same way.

My Favorite Portrait of Christ

This subject afforded an opportunity
to study the character of Christ from
what was to most people a new point
of view. Cbpies of Perry Pictures —
prints of the most famous portraits
of Christ — were provided at one cent
each. They were freely circulated
among the audience so that all were
able to examine them. After a few
remarks by the leader different people
told which of the portraits did the
most justice to their idea of the Master.
The spiritual value of the meeting
was in the way it brought out appre-
ciations of the character of Jesus,
particularly his courage, strength, and
manliness, which many portraits of him
utterly fail to suggest. The consensus

60 THE MID WEEK SERVICE

of opinion was strongly in favor of
the modern painters rather than the
classics, with Hofmann in his "The
Boy Jesus in the Temple" and "Christ
and the Rich Young Ruler" decidedly
the favorite. Holman Hunt, Plock-
horst, and Tissot were next in order,
with a very general liking for Thor-
waldsen's sculptured Christ. The
prints were given out to be taken
home as remembrances of the meeting.
A meeting similar in character was
held later in the year on the subject,
"My Favorite Madonna." Pictures
were used in the same manner. It
afforded, among other things, an ex-
cellent opportunity to consider the
natural causes of the rise of the wor-
ship of the Virgin Mary, and in view
of these causes, the necessity of keeping
our conception of Christ so filled with
sympathy and humanity that all that
the heart craves of tenderness may be
found in him.

THE MEETINGS 61

Groups in Prayer

After the people have assembled,
and had about ten minutes of intro-
ductory service, the meeting is divided
into groups under leaders. These lead-
ers know before the meeting that they
are to lead a group, and what their topic
is to be. Each leader takes his group
into a separate room, and for twenty
minutes they counsel and pray on their
topic. Then all return, and the closing
fifteen minutes of the service is given
to reports of these meetings by the
leaders, or by any one of the group,
if they desire to speak. It is found
that this type of meeting may get
many more to take part than the
average meeting, and also that there
is a definiteness about the prayers,
because of the subjects that are as-
signed. So many prayers do not get
anywhere; but in this service, where
blackboards were used in some of the

62 THE MID-WEEK SERVICE

rooms, there was a definiteness about
the prayers, which was splendid.

The February Family

This meeting is held at a proper
time in the month of February. In
this month occur the birthdays of
many of our famous men. We all
are familiar with Lincoln and Wash-
ington, but there are many others,
whose birthdays might be celebrated,
were it not for these outstanding
characters, such as, for example, Ruskin
and Longfellow. A very interesting
service can, therefore, be developed
by simply assigning to different people
the task of bringing in very brief
biographies of these prominent charac-
ters. It is always best, we have
found, to have some anecdotes of these
lives brought rather than just the bare
facts. There is nothing so stimulating
as the study of biography, and espe-
cially the study of men who have

THE MEETINGS 63

risen from meager circumstances to
prominent places in the world. The
month of February is rich with such
characters, and should not be over-
looked.

What Books Have Really
Helped You?

With two or three assigned to lead
in the discussion, people were asked to
name two or three books, whether
fiction or any other, which they had
really enjoyed and loved, and which
they felt had been permanently help-
ful. The aim was not to compile a
list of suitable books to be read,
which would be quite easy, and per-
haps quite useless, but something
better — a real experience meeting on
books actually read and prized. The
pastor's opening remarks were on some
books which had been formative in-
fluences on great lives, such as the
influence of Law's Serious Call on

64 THE MID-WEEK SERVICE

Wesley and David Brainard's Journal
on the life of Henry Marty n, etc.
The list which resulted was printed by
the Young People's Society of the

Church with the title, "The

Church Five-Foot Shelf of Books,"
and was distributed to the congrega-
tion. A few letters on the subject
from representative people in the city
were read in the meeting.

The Real Elements of My Life

Under this general head were held
what were considered by many the
most profitable meetings of the year.
They were introduced after the "fam-
ily-council" idea had become firmly
enough established and the informal
atmosphere prevalent enough to make
such meetings profitable because gen-
uinely real. A description of one will
suffice for five or six. There is
a world of meaning, always well

THE MEETINGS 65

worth pondering in connection with
preaching and the prayer meeting,
in the old Greek myth of Anteus:
Anteus was the son of Terra, the
Earth. He was a mighty giant and
wrestler whose strength was invincible
as long as he remained in contact
with his mother Earth. He regained
vigor whenever his feet touched her.
The prayer meeting is such a wrestler.
When it touches the earth and comes
into real contact with people's lives it
waxes strong. These meetings "touched
the earth' J with new vitality as the
result. One evening the subject was,
"What are the real elements of your
Happiness?" The people were asked
to name not the things which all
would agree ought to make folks happy,
but what really did contribute to their
happiness. Of course every life has
its own reserves which are for itself
alone, and no attempt was made to
have intimate secrets disclosed. But

66 THE MID-WEEK SERVICE

apart from things sacredly personal,
much help is to be had from the dis-
cussion of the question from the stand-
point of actual experience. It was
significant that only one person men-
tioned money, and many spoke of
things usually considered minor mat-
ters. Similar questions taken up at
intervals were :

What do you most fear?

What is the most difficult thing you
ever did?

What have been the most helpful
influences of your life?

What is the unpardonable sin against
you: that is, what do you find it most
difficult to forgive?

What is the most impressive thing
you ever witnessed?

A Reason for the Faith
That is in You

Two meetings were held under
this head which had great liveliness,

THE MEETINGS 67

but which included a very serious
purpose. In the first the pastor
posed as an unbeliever in Christianity.
He stated his assumed position as a
nonbeliever and made the strongest
possible case against the evidences of
Christianity. The audience was in-
vited to show him his errors and bring
out points in favor of their belief.
The discussion easily led the audience
to consider anew the reasons for their
faith. In the second meeting, held
some time later, the minister argued
from the standpoint of the man who
believed nominally in Christianity and
who sympathized with the church, but
who would neither attend nor join it.
The people were invited to persuade
him to join, and were incidentally
shown how the church appeared to
many on the outside, and the typical
attitudes and arguments which the
* church had to overcome.

68 THE MID-WEEK SERVICE

Story Meetings

Occasional meetings of a very simple
character with the reading of stories
as their principal feature have shown
devotional value. Of course this, being
the chief end of every meeting, must
be furnished by the story itself. In
some of the meetings discussion and
testimony followed the reading. Others
closed simply with song.

L. H. Bugbee's beautiful Christmas
story, The Man Who Was Too Busy to
Find the Child (The Methodist Book
Concern), was read at a meeting two
weeks before Christmas. An added
effectiveness was secured by having
the room darkened and lighted with
candles. Another Christmas story
which can be used effectively is J.
E. Park's The Man Who Missed
Christmas (Pilgrim Press). The sub-
ject of prayer has never been treated
more exquisitely, perhaps, than by

THE MEETINGS 69

Henry van Dyke in his story, The
Source, published in The Blue Flower
(Scribners). J. M. Barriers tender
description of his mother, Margaret
Ogilvy, "How My Mother Got Her
Soft Face," lends itself admirably to
the purposes of a prayer meeting.

It would be an unpardonable blun-
der to forget, in this connection, the
first and greatest Story Book in the
world. From it on one evening the
book of Ruth was read by four young
women, each reading one chapter.

What I Would Do With a
Million Dollars

In opening this meeting three people
were asked to make brief talks on
what they would do with a million
dollars. It brought out very clearly
what a complicated problem the better-
ment of the world is; the danger of
doing harm with money, even with
the best intent; the superiority of pre-

70 THE MID-WEEK SERVICE

ventive over rescue work, and the
necessity of reaching final causes rather
than symptoms of evil. A blackboard
was used to catch the suggestions
offered. One speaker made an original
and illuminating comment when he
said that with a million dollars he
would doubtless make a fool of him-
self. One concrete result was the
light gained on what to do with the
one dollar which a man had, rather
than with the million which he did
not have.

If the World Forgot to Pray

A fresh approach to the funda-
mental theme of the value of prayer
was made when this question was
the subject: "What would happen if
everyone forgot to pray for a year?"
The subject, as always, had been an-
nounced in advance, and the leader
made no introductory remarks beyond
asking if there would be any noticeable

THE MEETINGS 71

difference in the world at the end of
a year if no one prayed. Most of
those present agreed that there would.
They were then asked to suggest in
just what forms that difference would
be shown. A large number of interest-
ing suggestions were made which were
noted on a blackboard. Among them,
to quote a few examples, were the cer-
tain lowering of standards of personal
action; weakening of conscience; blunt-
ing of sympathies and consequent slack-
ening of charitable and social service;
lowering of the tone of home life;
cherishing of bitter feelings and ha-
treds which are frequently dissolved in
prayer; increase in sickness, due to
melancholy and gloom, increase in the
number of suicides, withering of the
church, etc. The meeting came to
an effective climax, when after these
things had been discussed, the pastor
pressed home the question whether it
was not true that the reason so many

72 THE MID-WEEK SERVICE

of these things do happen, as much
as they do, is because so many people
actually do neglect to pray? The
meeting seemed to give prayer a new
"place in the sun."

Debates

It has been found that some people
who will not speak on their own
initiative will take part in a friendly
and informal debate. The plan for
this service has been to have two
persons present the points on each
side, followed by general discussion
and a vote, not upon the manner of
presentation, but upon one's belief
regarding the question. Profitable sub-
jects will readily suggest themselves.
The four following have proved help-
ful:

Resolved, That the world is growing
morally and spiritually better.

Resolved, That capital punishment
should be abolished.

THE MEETINGS 73

Resolved, That war has done more
evil than intemperance.

Resolved, That the money spent on
foreign missions could be spent with
better results in this country.

These questions are all old, pur-
posely chosen for that reason. One
aim has been to get questions upon
which most people already have opin-
ions, and so make the debates less of
a scholastic exercise, involving the look-
ing up of material in a library, and
more in the nature of a conversation.
Such questions, with great religious
import, are the only ones which can
profitably be considered. It need
hardly be added that it is necessary
to avoid anything that would remotely
raise a personal or partisan issue.

The Inner Circle

Before this meeting the seats of the
room were arranged in three circles,
the inner circle being smaller than the

74 THE MID-WEEK SERVICE

outer two. The people sat in the two
outer circles; the inner one being re-
served to use at the latter part of the
service. The Scripture and brief talk
of about five minutes by the minister
were on the Inner Circle among the
disciples. The testimonies and prayers
held to the thought of fitness for
this close relation to Christ.

Ten minutes before the close of
the meeting the minister announced
that he was about to open the inner
circle, and wanted all who would to
enter it with him. The condition of
the entrance was as follows: upon
coming to the entrance of the circle,
each one was to pause, and pray
either silently or audibly, and at that
time decide, with God's help, to re-
nounce something in his life, which he
knew to be contrary to God's will, or
to take some definite advance step in
his relation to him and his service.

Almost all in the room entered the

THE MEETINGS 75

circle, and kneeled in the prayer of
consecration. This meeting was deeply
spiritual, and could not be held often,
yet it can be held at regular intervals,
and when announced, has brought a
large attendance.

Good Friday

On Good Friday the main audi-
torium of the church was opened in
the afternoon and evening for medita-
tion and prayer. There was no public
program or set exercise at either time.
The people had been invited to come
to the church and spend some time
in quietness and prayer. In the eve-
ning there was soft music on the
organ from time to time, mostly old
and appropriate hymns. A great many
people spent from fifteen minutes to
half an hour or an hour during the
evening in the church, and while the
value of such a quiet prayer period
cannot be appraised in any way, there

76 THE MID-WEEK SERVICE

were many expressions as to its help-
fulness. It may be objected that
this is a Catholic form of service; but
surely it is unwise to allow such a
simple following of the example of the
Master, who retired so often to a
quiet place to pray, to be regarded
as the peculiar property of any par-
ticular branch of the Christian Church.

Christian Ideals and Different
Occupations

"Let every one look not on his
own things but on the things of
another.' ' This was achieved in part
by several meetings, at each of which
a talk was given by some one on
his vocation and its relation to the
Christian life. The meetings were
in a series under the general head-
ing, "Earthly Professions and the
Christian Profession." The things dis-
cussed were the particular difficulties
of the different lines of work and

THE MEETINGS 77

what were felt to be their peculiar
rewards, other than financial; also
their peculiar temptations as well as
opportunities which they offered for
Christian service. Among those who
spoke were the following:

A teacher.
A doctor.
A lawyer.
A merchant.
A mechanic.
A minister.
A housewife.
A missionary.

An Evening With Old Hymnals

The minister in his calling had dis-
covered that there was quite a supply
of old hymn books in the music cab-
inets of different homes. For this
service he asked that these old Hym-
nals be brought to the church and
used. Many were prompted to speak
of something in connection with differ-
ent hymns and songs. The leader

78 THE MID-WEEK SERVICE

spoke of the strength of many of the
old songs on the side of individual
experience and also the need to be
supplemented on the social side, por-
traying the enlarging conception of the
kingdom of God. "It Is Well with My
Soul/' for instance, was contrasted
with a later hymn, "Where Cross the
Crowded Ways of Life," as showing
the necessity for individual experience
to be completed in social aspiration
and service.

Behind the Duplex Envelope

The prayer meeting the week be-
fore the Every-member Canvass was
made for church expenses and benev-
olences, took the form of a general
congregational meeting held in the
church auditorium. In its outward
form it resembled an entertainment
rather than a prayer meeting, but,
looking back over the results, there
was no one who did not consider it

THE MEETINGS 79

one of the most beneficial midweek
services of the year. The aim was to
represent by tableaux just what re-
sults were accomplished in filling up
both sides of the two pocket collec-
tion envelope every Sunday. A large
sheet was hung up in front of the plat-
form. This sheet had been marked
and lettered in exact duplication of
one of the church envelopes, with one
side for local expenses and the other
side for missions and benevolences.
Behind this curtain had been placed
a partition dividing the platform in
two. A member of the finance com-
mittee explained that when the cur-
tain was drawn aside the work of the
church at home and abroad would be
portrayed. On the "home" side of
the platform, when the curtain was
drawn, was an actual Sunday school
class in the Junior grade in session,
standing for the educational work of
the local church. On the other side,

80 THE MID-WEEK SERVICE

representing the missionary part of
the envelope, were six girls and their
teacher in costume, portraying a Sun-
day school class in Japan. (Admirable
costumes may be rented from the
Missionary Education Movement, 156
Fifth Avenue, New York, for nearly
every foreign land, at fifty cents each.)
The next scenes shown were a meet-
ing of the Ladies' Aid Society on the
"home" side, showing a few ladies
sewing for a near-by hospital, while
on the foreign side some young men
represented a scene in a mission hos-
pital in China.

This was followed by representations
of worship at home and abroad. A
home pew of worshipers was shown on
one side, and a mass movement meet-
ing in a village of India on the other.
The organ played softly Heber's hymn,
"Holy, Holy, Holy." Other scenes
helped to make the matter-of-fact and
business like envelope seem like a

THE MEETINGS 81

door which opens on a world teeming
with life, when it is conscientiously
filled.

A Study of Paul's Parishes

Three meetings were given to a
consideration of Paul as an itinerant
pastor, his parishes, and the problems
they offered. The three parishes taken
up were those at Corinth, Ephesus,
and the churches in Galatia. Thes-
salonica also gives a fine opportunity
for suggestive study. Bible references
on the history of the parish, its com-
position and PauPs relation to it, from
Acts and the epistles, were given out
and read. Various persons had been
asked to tell about the problems of
the parish, for instance, in dealing
with Corinth, the factions, the prob-
lem of sin within the church, the
fanatics (Judaizers), etc. Then the
means Paul used to lift the parish
out of these hindrances and handicaps

82 THE MID-WEEK SERVICE

were discussed, his counsels (for ex-
ample, the 13th chapter of First
Corinthians) were read as throwing
light on some permanent problems of
every church.

Other meetings growing out of the
general lack of knowledge on the part
of the people with reference to Paul's
missionary journeys, were called "Little
Journeys with Paul," in which an
evening was given to Paul's mission-
ary journeys. Maps and blackboards
were used and the hardship of the
journeys, etc., gave many valuable
lessons for counsel.

The Early Candlelight Service

Keeping in mind the old custom of
bringing candles to the house of God
that it might be lighted, a service
was planned called an Early Candle-
light Service. The seating of the room
was circular and nothing but candles
were used to light the room, the

THE MEETINGS 83

candles being placed about the walls
and on the minister's table. In the
center of the room was a table on
which a number of small candles
formed a cross.

Two thoughts were emphasized in
the Scriptures and the minister's brief
talk: that the source of every man's
light is the cross, and that each is
commissioned to be the light of the
world. Accordingly, after testimonies
and prayers, which all bore on the
subject, the minister led the symbolic
service, in which each person took a
candle from the cross, signifying
whence his light came. After this a
brief prayer was offered, then, as all
stood in a circle, the minister, with
his candle lighted the first to his
right, and that one lighted the one
to his right, and so on, until the
whole circle was lighted. It made a
very beautiful service, and as im-
pressive as beautiful.

84 THE MID-WEEK SERVICE

A rather unusual thing for a prayer
meeting was that there was not a
prayer or testimony but which bore
on the subject.

Living Up to Our Hymns

Why do people sing certain hymns
so heartily? Why do their hearts
warm and their eyes glisten at the
sound of the old familiar hymn?
Quite often because it is old, and
brings back the memories of the past;
quite as often because they love the
tune. The real thought and meaning
of the words are often overlooked,
and we declare enthusiastically in song
what we neither believe nor live.

A service with splendid results may
be had by taking some of the familiar
hymns and going carefully over the
meaning of their thought, with the
idea of living up to these high ideals
and noble sentiments. Let this ques-
tion be prominent: What would a

THE MEETINGS 85

stranger think of me if he knew me
only by the hymns I sing, and how
near would he be to a right estimate
of my character?

If I Were the Preacher

Two very live meetings may be
had by taking the two subjects, "If
I Were the Preacher/' and "If I Were
the Congregation." At the first meet-
ing the people are asked to tell what
they would do were they the minis-
ter; how they would run the church;
what things they would emphasize,
etc.

At the second meeting the minister
talks on what he would do if he were
a member of the congregation. Of
course no one can tell just what he
would do in some one else's place,
but it is good to put yourself, as nearly
as you can, in the other man's place
at times, and sympathize.

Like the Church Program meeting,

86 THE MID-WEEK SERVICE

these bring out good suggestions, and,
at least, get people to thinking.

Relatives in the Bible

What people in the Bible are your
relatives? The question itself arouses
interest. In looking at the various
Bible characters you find some that
you like better than others. Peter
appeals to one; John to some one
else; Paul to another, and so on.
Everyone has his favorites. Quite
often we like this character or that
because he is related to us by some
characteristics. A very interesting
meeting, therefore, can be developed,
by asking the people to look through
the Bible for familiar characters, who
are related to them in this way. In
one such meeting one man felt that
his nearest relative was the one who
fell asleep in church under Paul's
preaching. Some would not confess
it, but they might find that Isaac

THE MEETINGS 87

was their nearest relative, because
he did the same things that his father
did; built the same wells, and told
the same lies.

The Last Supper

This is a service in preparation for
communion. Without allowing the
meeting to be so serious that it is
sad, the people are asked to consider
the important things they would like
to say to their friends, were this their
last supper with them. Of course it
is at once evident there would be
many things we would say to loved
ones that would be too sacred for a
public meeting, yet there are some
things which may well be said and
with more fitness in the light of their
being farewell words.

An old-fashioned Methodist love
feast goes well with this meeting.

Church Program Night
The idea of this service is to get

88 THE MID-WEEK SERVICE

the people to plan a church program,
as they would have it. A blackboard
is used, and people are requested to
suggest the items of importance, which
they feel should make up the program
of the church. One of the interesting
things about this service is that some
people have never thought of a church
program. The service will give many
people a larger idea of the scope of
the work which the church is under-
taking, and very often brings out
some splendid suggestions for the min-
ister.

It will be found advantageous to
take up at this service such a program
as the missionary program of the
church, which is very essential, along
with the duplex envelope system. It
may also be well to consider some of
the overlapping of church work by
different societies in the church, and
see if suggestions cannot be brought
out whereby some central authority

THE MEETINGS 89

can plan the church program so that
this can be avoided.

Reception to New Members

This night is a regular feature.
Communion is held once every two
months, and the first Thursday night
prayer meeting after communion takes
the form of a reception to new mem-
bers. Certain ones are asked to re-
ceive; they are the host and hostess
for the evening. They stand at the
door with the new members, and in-
troduce them to all who come. The
evening is more of a home evening,
and very informal. After the usual
prayers light refreshments may be
served. This may be made one of
the very best of the midweek services.

Cloud of Witnesses

Almost every church looks back with
pride to certain ministers and laymen
who have been strong influences in

90 THE MID-WEEK SERVICE

the church life, and almost every
church has pictures of such men and
women. It is a service both interest-
ing and meaningful, especially for the
young people, to get out these old
pictures, and hang them about the
walls of the room, then have those
who knew them tell of their life and
work; the thought to be kept upper-
most in this meeting is the respon-
sibility that rests upon us because of
the faith and labors of our fathers and
the challenge of their expectancy.

How We Have Taught Religion
in the Home

We hear a great deal about religion
in the home, though not so much as
we used to. Certainly, anything that
will help to emphasize the value of
religion in the home is needed. In
this meeting people are asked to re-
late the ways in which they have tried
to teach religion to their children in

THE MEETINGS 91

the home, what methods they have
used in family prayers, or any other
suggestions that the people have to
offer with reference to successful means
of bringing religious instruction to the
lives of their children.

Church Union

A very informal symposium was
held one evening on the subject of
"Church Union." Four laymen — a
Congregationalist, a Baptist, an Epis-
copalian, and a Methodist — described
briefly what things in their polity
were different from the other denom-
inations. Each made suggestions as to
how he thought a common basis of
union in the matter of organization
might ultimately be reached. The de-
sign of the meeting was to bring out
from the people themselves the fact
that the greatest part of the task of
church union, a substantial unanimity
of spirit and faith, and has already

92 THE MID-WEEK SERVICE

been achieved. Such a meeting will
inevitably bring up the possibility of
a better present federation in the local
field.

Progressive Meeting

For this service several rooms of
the church are arranged so that in
them various needs of the church are
presented. If there are not many
rooms in the church, then sections
of rooms can be screened off. A leader
is selected to be in each room to ex-
plain the need, as the people pass
around visiting the exhibits. It is
well if the minister leads the people
about, although, if there are too many,
there may be other leaders. At each
room or place the people pause, while
the work to be done is presented and
prayer is offered for this particular need.
After visiting all of the rooms, the peo-
ple assemble again for general prayers
and counsel for the church work.

THE MEETINGS 93

Building a Character

A blackboard is used at this serv-
ice, and after a brief talk, in which
the minister explains the service and
emphasizes the importance of charac-
ter-building, the people are asked to
build a character in the meeting.
Anyone is asked to suggest an im-
portant characteristic that he thinks
ought to make up a part of the life
of any character. Very soon many
of the people will be stating certain
characteristics that to them are essen-
tial to an ideal life, and before the
service is over there will be some
splendid material with which to con-
struct a life. After all the sugges-
tions are in, the leader can condense
these suggestions into the essential
characteristics that go to make up a
true personality. It will easily be
seen that there will be plenty of ma-
terial in such a service as this to bring

94 THE MID-WEEK SERVICE

out splendid testimony and prayer.
Some of the very finest lessons of
life can be developed through such a
means as this, and lessons that take
hold of people because of this ped-
agogical method of bringing them be-
fore their attention.

Religious Conversation

At this meeting, after the intro-
ductory part of the service, the peo-
ple are divided into small groups of
four or six, each group is assigned
a leader, and it is better if these
leaders have had a meeting with the
minister previously, so that they will
have some idea of the way to begin
the conversation. After the grouping
the minister assigns a religious topic
to each group, and the people simply
talk together, as they would in their
homes, about anything that they may
think of with reference to this religious
topic.

THE MEETINGS 95

Like the meeting of the groups in
prayer, the informality of this service
brings out much more discussion than
is usual in the average prayer meeting.

All the News That's Fit to Print

Especially to those living within
reach of New York city, this heading,
"All the news that's fit to print' ' is
a very familiar one. It will be found
to be an interesting service if at the
prayer meeting a newspaper is printed.
Of course no printing can be done,
but the people are asked to bring to
the service some poem or some prose
selection or some clipping from a news-
paper, which they consider to be im-
portant, and then these things are all
put together and a newspaper is formed.

My Best Vacation

Let the people discuss in an in-
formal way what they consider their
best vacation, and tell why, then let

96 THE MID-WEEK SERVICE

the minister sum up the thought of
the evening in closing.
Use just before vacation time.

Church Budget

Let the midweek service vote the
church budget. We do not mean this
to be final — but let the people here
indicate what they think the money
of the church should be spent for,
and how much for each item. There
are some within the church who do
not think it very democratic, and feel
that the officials are a rather closed
corporation. It will do them good to
express themselves, and may bring out
some good ideas for the officials of
the church, as well as furnish good
thoughts for real prayer and testimony.

Mirrors

Taking Paul's thought that in this life
we see in a mirror, there can be de-
veloped an interesting meeting by con-

THE MEETINGS 97

sidering the different types of mirrors
we look into in life. Some people look
into mirrors that magnify, and they ap-
pear to themselves greater than they
are. This is the mirror of conceit.

Some look into mirrors that min-
imize themselves, so that they appear
less than they are. This is the mirror
of lack-of-self-confidence.

Some people look into a glass that
confuses, so that large things in life
seem small and unimportant things
appear important, and so on.

Interest can be quickened by having
these different kinds of mirrors at
the service to illustrate each point.
Attention can also be drawn to large
mirrors of this type that most people
have had experience with in places
of amusement.

Amusements

Amusements make up so much of
people's lives — so much more than we

98 THE MID-WEEK SERVICE

sometimes think — yet there is great
confusion in the minds of many as
to just what are profitable and what
unprofitable ways of recreation and
amusement. A meeting of frank dis-
cussion on this subject will very often
clear the matter for some people, and
be encouraging to the younger people
who are in attendance.

Patriotic Meeting

Many suggestions will immediately
come to anyone's mind with reference
to patriotic decorations and arrange-
ments for a patriotic meeting. This
meeting can be held near the thirtieth
of May, or the Fourth of July, or
even near the time of the birthdays
of some of our great statesmen, such
as Lincoln or Washington. Flags, of
course, will from a large part of the
decoration, and patriotic music and
readings will enter into the service.
Very small flags may be used to give

THE MEETINGS 99

away as souvenirs of the meeting.
This meeting is especially good, as it
may be made to appeal to the younger
people of the church, even the boys.
The Scouts can be used to enliven
this meeting — both the Boy Scouts and
Camp Fire Girls.

An Art Gallery Meeting

Perry pictures, reproductions of the
old masters, especially those with les-
sons of religion and life, are used for
this service. Such pictures as "Break-
ing Home Ties," "The First Winter
of the Puritans," "The Legend of the
Holy Grail," "The Angelus," etc.,
should by all means be included.

The pictures are arranged in series
to bring out character lessons, then
each series is hung or pinned up in
different rooms of the church; or, if
there are not many rooms, then in
sections of one room. One person
will have charge of each of the groups

100 THE MID-WEEK SERVICE

of pictures. The congregation is then
divided into several groups, and they
pass around, stopping in each room,
or each section of the room, where
the person in charge explains the pic-
tures and draws the lessons from them.
This will require thirty or forty min-
utes, and then all reassemble for gen-
eral prayers.

Family Prayers

Under this simple wording the
Thanksgiving meeting was announced
and held. It aimed to live up
to its title and give more than a
remote suggestion of that atmosphere
of a home where family prayers were
a regular, natural, and real thing. A
fireplace was set up at the front of
the room with red electric lights in
it to represent the family hearth (where
a real fireplace can be used the effect,
of course, is much better). Some of
the older persons of the parish were

THE MEETINGS 101

asked beforehand to conduct the fam-
ily prayers. After the people assem-
bled they were broken up into several
groups and went to different rooms,
and there these leaders conducted fam-
ily prayers, just as they would in
their own home with their family.
The meeting was a simple, old-fash-
ioned Thanksgiving meeting, with the
particular feature of emphasizing anew
the value of home worship.

"By the Christmas Fire"

The fireplace and a small Christmas
tree were used in connection with the
meeting the week before Christmas.
It was designed to make a lull in the
rush of Christmas preparation in the
home, stores, and the church, and
afforded an opportunity to remember
what it was all about. The best-loved
of the Christmas songs were sung,
two lullabys by some of the Sunday
school children, and several old carols

102 THE MID-WEEK SERVICE

by two or three members of the choir.
Three selections were read by different
people. The Christmas story from
Luke, part of the Cratchits' Christmas
dinner from The Christmas Carol, and
the last two paragraphs from Henry
van Dyke's The Meaning of Christ-
mas, were read.

A Chain of Prayer Across
the Ages

It will be noticed that many of
the meetings here described have been
on the subject of prayer. This has
not been due to accident or lack of
proportion, but to the conviction that
the distinctive function of the prayer
meeting is the cultivation of the prayer
habit. The purpose of this particular
meeting was to show the universality
and range of prayer down through
the ages. Two books were used in
preparing for the meeting — The Mean-
ing of Prayer, by H. E. Fosdick

THE MEETINGS 103

(Association Press), and A Chain
of Prayer Across the Ages (Dutton).
Most any collection of prayers would
do equally well. The introductory part
of the service consisted of the reading
of prayers representing different ages,
different experiences, and different
needs. The Meaning of Prayer contains
a fine selection of prayers voicing differ-
ent emotions in prayer, praise, thanks-
giving, penitence, petition, interces-
sion. To show these different aspects
of prayer, prayers by various men
were read — Saint Augustine, Thomas a
Kempis, Bishop Launcelot Andrewes,
and Beecher; and as representing
the new sense of social aspiration and
brotherhood, Walter Rauschenbusch.
With such an introduction, a meeting
may take its own course. The im-
pression left is sure to be that of
prayer as the means of entrance into
the great and goodly fellowship of
the world's largest souls.

CHAPTER VI
ADDITIONAL SUGGESTIONS

Signs of the Times

At this service, especially if the
service is in a large city, there may be
hung about the room certain signs,
with which the people are very fa-
miliar— signs that are for the pro-
tection of the people in their general
intercourse, and yet signs which may
bear a moral or religious significance.
Take such signs, for example, which
we are very familiar with in New
York city, such as, " Watch Your
Step," "This Way Out," "This Way
In," "Pay as You Enter," "Shine
Inside." Each one of these signs,
when people are reminded of it, will
bring a real message.

"Watch Your Step," that it may
104

ADDITIONAL SUGGESTIONS 105

lead you in the right direction, and
that it may not lead others astray;
"Pay as You Enter/ ' so that you
will not wake up in years to come,
and find yourself in debt; and so each
of these signs, and many others, which
might be mentioned, may be used, not
only to bring messages on that par-
ticular night, but may also tend to
cause these people to remember lessons
of that night whenever they read these
signs again.

The Things That Jesus Likened
Himself to in the Bible

The title of this service is explan-
atory in itself. Jesus likened himself
to Bread, Way, Light, Vine, Shep-
herd, Door, etc. For this service the
leader should announce at the service
the week before that this was to be
the nature of the service, and ask
the people to look up references in
the Bible, which refer to Jesus, or in

106 THE MID-WEEK SERVICE

which Jesus refers to himself as like
certain great, substantial things in
this life.

The things to which Jesus likened
his disciples may be helpfully grouped
together, using the Bible references to
Salt, Light, Friends, Leaven, Seed,
Sheep, etc.

The Child in Ouk Midst

In preparation for this meeting the
people are asked to interview children
to find out their opinions with refer-
ence to God — as to who God is, where
God lives, what God does, who God
associates with, how God communi-
cates with us, and how we with him.
Two things will probably develop from
such a service as this: it will be re-
markable to see how nearly genuine
is the simple faith of the child, and it
may also tend to help the older ones
to be more sympathetic with the view
point of the child. Jesus said that

ADDITIONAL SUGGESTIONS 107

a little child should lead them, and
unless we become as little children we
cannot enter the kingdom of heaven.
Some people have never really under-
stood these teachings.

The Midweek Reception

Certain ones are selected for this
service to be at home to the mem-
bers of the church, and they make
provision for the service just as they
might were they receiving in their
own home; then they greet the people
as they come, and conduct the service
as though the people were their guests.
Interest can be added to such a serv-
ice if these people will send out "At
Home" cards to the people of the
parish, or, a better thing is to have
each person who will send an "At
Home" card to several others, who are
not in the habit of attending the
service, and then be there to greet
them and make them feel at home.

108 THE MID-WEEK SERVICE

How Men of the Bible Prayed

In his little book entitled The Mean-
ing of Prayer Harry Emerson Fosdick
has some splendid illustrations and
references showing how various men of
the Bible prayed — their posture, their
attitude, their words, and spirit and
prayer. This in itself forms the basis
for a very suggestive service.

An interesting meeting can be de-
veloped in which such things as the
following are considered:

Jesus's conversations.

Jesus's answer to questions.

Jesus as a debater.

The types of faith which Jesus met,
and how he met them.

The types of doubt which Jesus met,
and how he met them.

The Great Battlefields
of the Bible

The greatest battlefields of the world

ADDITIONAL SUGGESTIONS 109

are in the heart. Biographical ap-
proaches to very common problems in
everyday life may be had in a series
of prayer meetings which take up
"The Great Battlefields of the Bible."
These would be experiences in the
lives of men where they either con-
quered or were conquered by some
great temptation or calamity. For
example:

Christ in the Wilderness.

Saul and his fits of despondency.
Also Elijah.

Job.

Solomon — the battle against dom-
ination by material possessions.

Moses, Daniel, Judas, etc.

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